We visited him in the hospital this weekend with Michelle & Alex, and he seems to be doing well. He looks healthy, which is strange, considering how vastly unhealthy he looked last time.
Basically, what happened was, they discovered it on a routine checkup a week ago, and he's going through a round of chemo now and probably another round later, followed by a bone marrow transplant. Hopefully one of his brothers or sister will be a suitable donor.
So far we're all in pretty good spirits - Dad's surrounded by good doctors, and my mom is basically in the hospital every minute she can be. It's really too bad, because this time he felt almost perfectly healthy before going in - and now the chemo is making him feel like crap. As he said, "I feel like someone's poisoning me on purpose!" The chemo he got on Friday was a luminous blue liquid...that's got to thrill you, when you see a doctor coming in with a bag of that stuff, intending to hook it up to your IV.
For those of you who may want to write him, his address is:
Provena St. Joseph Hospital
Chris Sherman - Room 740 Bed 1
333 N. Madison
Joliet, IL 60435
It's unclear how long he's going to be in the hospital for this round of chemo, so you can hold off writing 'til later, when he'll be in Loyola for a month. Or you can just write again then! ;o) I know how much the cards & letters meant to him last time, and I know he'd love to hear from anyone. He's got a lot of free time on his hands...
So, I got to see Dad on Friday and then again this morning - I was pretty ill yesterday with a cold, so the doctors didn't want me going to the hospital to visit him. Of course I didn't want to risk it, but then again...it's my dad, and he's sick, and I want to be near him. (Hence, I didn't get a picture taken with him.)
On a strange note, on our way home we came across a strange sight: a line of five or six camouflaged army vehicles on I-290...
Dave said the army dudes in the trucks were armed, which was kind of creepy to think about. Needless to say, we drove away from that sight pretty quickly.
Anyway, to sum up the weekend, it was good to see Dad, I'm getting over my cold, and I got no work done. Hopefully the upcoming week will be mellow enough that I can get that paper written, and maybe start on some course outlines. (Yeah right...)
3 comments:
Hey, don't have much time to write, just wanted to say I hope everything goes well and your dad gets back into remission very soon.
Wow, that's cool that your dad let you take a picture of him! If my dad had had the strength to do so, he would have refused to let my brother and me visit him in the hospital (I mean when he was sick years ago); I can't imagine what he would have done if we tried to whip out a camera.
And yeah, those army trucks are definitely creepy....
This weekend I saw a picture of what he looked like last time he was in the hospital, and it's a world of difference. Just thought I'd get a picture of him, for everyone who can't necessarily visit him. :o)
Thanks for letting everyone know. It's so hard getting the word out to all. Dad kinda slept on and off Sunday afternoon after reading the paper and doing the crossword puzzle. All the medicines they are giving him tend to make him sleepy (not that there is much to be awake for). I've been asking him if he wants me to buy a portable DVD player so he can watch them in the hospital. He hasn't said yes yet, I think it would help a little.
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